Reports & Insights

Jargon Buster

We’ve put this guide together to help you with strategic planning, consumer research and innovation, full-service digital offering (display, mobile, paid search engine marketing, search engine optimisation and social media), data solutions and more.

A

Advanced Booking Deadline. This relates to media that impose a strict early booking incentive such as TV. The maximum discount is gained upon booking before the advanced booking deadline of approximately 6-12 weeks in advance.

Shortened version of 'advertising expenditure'. Adspend is used to monitor brands advertising expenditure across each media by month and by media company. Can be used in connection with expenditure by one, many or all advertisers. Has technical overtones when used in advertising research, eg tracking studies.

All Adults that fall within the socio-economic grade “ABC1”. Demographic classifications in Ireland refer to the social grade. These are used to classify people of different social grade and income and earnings levels.

This is a mathematical or statistical method is used by companies such as Google to determine the priority by which pages should rank more highly than others. Changes in algorithm results correlate with clients website performance depending on what those changes are.

Ambient media are found in the "surroundings" (the dictionary definition of the word is "surrounding, circumfused"). Generally referred to as 'out-of-home' media. Most media not included in the classic TV, press, poster, radio, cinema, direct mail and 'new' media definitions can be consigned to this category. Examples would be advertisements on dripmats, eggs, football goal nets, litter bins and restaurant serviettes.

In relation to media campaigns, attribution modelling shows how a team of ads contribute to a sale or conversion over an extended period of time. So instead of the traditional method of crediting a conversion or sale to the last ad clicked or viewed, an attribution model will attribute credit to each ad or touchpoint along the sales funnel. This is used to effectively understand the role and influence each channel has to achieve the marketing objectives. Using attribution modelling is an effective way of improving your return on investment and streamlining each campaign to deliver optimised campaigns.

A group of households or individuals who are attending, listening or watching something. It is often used to indicate viewers of a television program or another advertising medium. Audience measurements are expressed as percentages, or as estimated numbers of households or individuals watching or listening to a program.

National or local/regional newspaper which is approximately 56cms in depth, compared with the 36cms depth of 'tabloids'. In the national press sector, the broadsheet format is used nowadays used exclusively by quality ('upmarket') newspapers.

Identification messages given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser on an individual’s computer stores the message in a text file called cookie.txt. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. The main purpose of cookies is to identify users (consumers) and prepare customised Web pages (offering information, advertising, goods or services) for them. Cookies can include passwords and Web site preferences, as well as a history of the other sites visited, e-mail information, etc. Cookies themselves are not gathering data, but they are used as a tracking device to help the people who are gathering information.

Cost-efficiency is a comparative measure of audience delivered per unit of cost (eg a TV spot costing €1000 seen by 100,000 housewives delivers a cost-per-thousand of €1000/100 = €10.00). It is typically used in inter- or intra-media comparisons of costs-per-thousand (usually abbreviated to 'cpt' - 'cpm' in some countries).

The number of people who will see a campaign at least once usually expressed as a percentage of an audience. 1+ means how many people have watched the ad once whereas 2+ is how many people watched the ad twice.

Collaboration is the term used whereby multiple media are used to achieve a common campaign goal. Collaborations can involve one media owner using different formats (e.g. RTE Guide, RTE TV, RTE Player, RTE Radio) but can also involve multiple media owners across a broad spectrum.

D

Broadcast time period (segment), eg daytime 10:00am to 4:00pm. Often applied to segments which are used by TV companies in allocating rates to different parts of the day - but there are no generally agreed exact definitions by time period.

Digital transmission technology has a very wide range of applications in broadcast media, video, telephony, computing, etc. In TV, it facilitates more efficient use of transmission frequencies (more channels for a given bandwidth), unlike its predecessor, PAL, which was analogue. Digital signals can be encrypted and compressed. The technology offers enhanced picture quality and improved sound quality for both TV and radio services.

Data management platform. In the context of digital marketing, a DMP is used to manage the data from all digital sources (from collection, translation, classification and indexing) with the purpose of serving the right ad to the most relevant consumer and using this to segment the consumer.

The part of an Internet URL (Universal Resource Locator) selected and registered by an individual, business or organisation to represent their web presence. It consists of at least two parts that are separated by "dots." The last part or suffix indicates the type of site, such as ".edu" for schools, ".gov" for government, and ".com" for commercial business.

E

Econometrics can measure the impact your communications have on sales and profit. It can also forecast the effects of future campaigns using the past. Econometrics are based on statistical information based on multiple sources including sales, profits, website information, weather, competitive activity and so on. Econometrics is based on quantitative research and is a means to turn relevant and significant data for clients into actionable insights. Most econometric studies would need at least a year of data in order to provide good quality information.

A website which carries advertising and is either (a) an online version of an existing press or broadcast medium, (b) a compilation of online equivalents of a number of different media or (c) a 'magazine'-type medium which is found only on the internet.

F

Software or hardware that protects a private network from the public. The purpose of a firewall is to keep unauthorised outsiders from tampering with a computer system, thereby increasing a server's security.

G

The total number of households or individuals in a television audience viewing for two or more time periods within a schedule of spots or programmes without regard to duplication. For example, an individual is counted twice in gross audience if he/she appears in the audience of two of the spots or programmes within the schedule Gross Average Audience (GAA) Rating – The sum of the percent of households or persons tuning or viewing during the average minute of each telecast of the programme, including repeat telecasts during the report interval. Duplicated tuning and viewing to the same programme (or its repeat telecast) by the same household during the reporting period is counted each time.

The sum of audiences, in terms of people or households viewing, where there is exposure to the same commercial or programme on multiple occasions. Two gross impressions could mean the same person was in the audience on two occasions or that two different people had been exposed only once.

The total number of in-Market impressions delivered by an advertising campaign expressed as a percentage of a market population. One rating point represents impressions equal to 1 percent of the market population. GRPs is more commonly used in the UK to describe TVRs or TV Ratings.

In press media, that part of a printed page which is closest to the spine of a publication, outside the normal area of 'live matter'. Advertisements will sometimes be 'bled into the gutter', meaning that their printed area will extend into the gutter (to ensure the contiguity of two sides of a double page spread, for instance).

H

An old expression for Impressions. The number of times an item of data has been accessed. For example, each time a user downloads a home page on the Web that is considered one hit to that Web site. Hits also refer to the number of page and/or graphic files requested by visitors.

A computer system that is accessed by a user working at a remote location. The computer system that contains the data is called the host, while the computer at which the user sits is called a remote terminal.

Abbreviation for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web. HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what action Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands.

Number of homes or individuals exposed to an advertisement or group of advertisements. In Internet parlance, the total number of times an advertising banner has been served to the Web population. To be counted as an impression, the banner has to successfully load on the user's browser. If the user goes to another page on the same website that counts as two impressions and so on.

Name of a flier or insert in a given newspaper or magazine title. Cost is based on the print run of the publication and the advertisers prints and delivers it to the publication. Insert costs are also based on weights and size.

J

Java is a general-purpose programming language with a number of features that make the language well-suited for use on the World Wide Web. Small Java applications are called Java applets and can be downloaded from a Web server and run on your computer by a Java-compatible Web browser.

A JPEG is a type of still-image file found all over the Internet. Files in this format end in .jpg or .jpeg, and are called JPEG (pronounced "JAY-peg") files, which stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group.

L

Lifestyle analysis system based on the concept that people have different aspirations and tastes at different stages of their lives: life cycle groups might include 'Dependent', 'Empty Nesters', 'Pre-family'. There are various proprietary systems which take this general form.

Advertising minutage refers to the amount of advertising and media carries every hour. These differ per station (TV/Radio) and has an impact on the amount of clutter that is contained within each ad-break.

When an advertiser places an outdoor option this is held for that brand. If another brand wishes to "Call in" that option the brand who first places the option has 48 hours to confirm it or drop the option. If they confirm the option they cannot cancel the option.

Additional copies of a publication or other printed material that are produced in excess of those needed for distribution. Overruns are typically produced to meet additional needs or unexpected demand, or sometimes in the context of compensation.

P

Programmatic buying is the algorithmic purchase and sale of advertising space in real time, which benefits both the publisher and advertiser. This extends to digital buying but can also extend to TV advertising.

Average number of Web pages each unique visitor has viewed on the listed site. This measure can help determine how many pages a person views per visit to a site, and thus indicate their level of interest in the particular site.

The number of readers a given print title has, which differs to circulation in that circulation is copies sold whereas readership counts the number of people reading that title. The Joint National Readership Survey is a survey which produces the readership report and includes important demographics about each title and also includes digital statistics of newspaper titles.

In sample research, a calculation of the percentage of initially designated sample units providing a response in a given survey. It may be calculated by dividing the number of pre-designated units (households or persons) in a survey that provide usable information by the total number of pre-designated units. Reflects the ratio of the final in-tab sample among pre-designated units to the total pre-designated sample.

In Internet parlance, an inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list or other network communications as if it were a broadcast medium by sending the same message to a large number of people who didn't ask for it.

Any month where there is a different demand for Airtime across the month such that demand is at a significantly different level and price from the start to the end of the month; example: December (before Christmas and after Christmas).

A TVR or a rating as it is commonly called, represents 1% of a target audience watching a programme or an ad break at a particular time. A person must be viewing for at least 15 seconds to be considered in the calculation of a rating. An average rating of 15 for Adults for a programme means that, on average, 15% of all Adults watched the programme.

The population chosen for the research study. Universe estimates are the estimated number of actual households or people from which the sample will be taken and to which data from the sample will be projected.

V

Viewability is a digital metric that aims to track only impressions that can actually be seen by users. For example, if the ad is shown below the fold and the user doesn't scroll down that impression would not be a "viewable" impression.

A marketing strategy which encourages the target audience to pass on information to others, often using online media and attaching a brand's name or message to the information circulated, with the result (if successful) that very large numbers of recipients are exposed to the activity.

VOSDAL stands for Viewed-On-Same-Day-As-Live. VOSDAL viewing includes time-shift viewing viewed on the same day as the original broadcast. It is included in the overnight files released at 9.30am the following day. For example, if a film commences at 5.30pm and is recorded and then viewed later the same evening at 9.00pm, this viewing is captured and reported in the overnight file published the following day.

W

A web server is a computer permanently connected to the Internet that serves information, files, Web pages, and other services to any client (e.g. computer with a browser) that logs onto it and requests them.

A weight is a numerical value assigned to each unit of the sample. Weighting is the process of multiplying the unit data by the unit weight and then summing these weighted values across all units of the sample.